From 1547, when his father was created Duke of Somerset, his son Edward Seymour was styled by the duke's subsidiary title of Earl of Hertford. He was educated with the young Prince Edward, later Edward VI, and was knighted on the occasion of Edward's coronation. On 7 April 1550 he was sent to France as a hostage, returning three weeks later. Following his father's disgrace and execution, his son was barred from inheriting his titles and most of his wealth. Some of his father's lands and property were restored to him by Edward VI, but he still seemed to have been forced to rely on Sir John Thynne for some financial support. Under Queen Mary he was "restored in blood", but was not given back his title; Queen Elizabeth I created him Earl of Hertford, in the earldom's second creation, in 1559. Between April and May 1605 following the Treaty of London he was sent on an Embassy by King James I to Albert VII, Archduke of Austria, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands between 1598 and 1621, at Brussels, to receive his oath of peace.
A series of clandestine marriages
Katherine Grey
His first wife, Lady Katherine Grey, was a potential claimant to Elizabeth's throne, and law established that it was a penal offence for her to marry without notifying the Sovereign. They were married by an anonymous clergyman at Hertford House in Cannon Row, Westminster, before 25 December 1560. The marriage was kept secret until August nearly a year later when Katherine became visibly pregnant and she confided the reason to Lord Robert Dudley. Each was ordered to confinement in the Tower; Katherine was confined immediately, and Seymour imprisoned upon his return from a tour of the continent with Sir Thomas Cecil. While in custody, they were questioned about every aspect of their marriage, but they both claimed to have forgotten the date. A commission was begun, headed by Archbishop Parker in February 1562. Under this pressure, Lady Katherine finally declared that they had waited for Elizabeth to quit the capital for Eltham Palace. Servants were questioned, and none of them could remember the exact date either. John Fortescue said it was 'in November'. The priest could not be located, but by consulting the accounts of the Cofferer of the Household the marriage date was decided to be 27 November. His son Edward was declared illegitimate and the father was fined 15,000 pounds in Star Chamber for "seducing a virgin of the blood royal." Despite all this, the Earl apparently found a way to continue marital relations with his wife in the Tower. In February 1563, Thomas Seymour was born. Lady Katherine died in 1568, and Seymour was finally allowed out of the Tower and allowed to re-appear at court. Officially his sons remained bastards. In 1576 he carried the sword of state at Elizabeth's procession of the knights of the garter.
Progeny by Katherine Grey
Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp, eldest son and heir, born in the Tower of London. He predeceased his father, having married Honora Rogers and had male progeny including his eldest surviving son William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset, restored in 1660 on the Restoration of the Monarchy to the Dukedom forfeited on the attainder of the 1st Duke in 1552. The 2nd Duke, like his grandfather, was imprisoned for marrying in secret to a wife with royal blood, namely Arbella Stuart. His monumental brass inscription survives in Great Bedwyn Church, inscribed in Latin as follows:
Thomas Seymour, 2nd son, born in the Tower of London, who also predeceased his father and died without progeny, having married Isabell Onley, daughter of Edward Onley, Esquire, of Catesby in Northamptonshire, MP for Brackley in 1563. Thomas's mural monument, possibly by the sculptor Epiphanius Evesham, survives in St Margaret's Church, Westminster, showing kneeling effigies of himself and his wife, inscribed as follows:
Frances Howard
In 1582, he married his second wife, Frances Howard. Their union was in secret, and remained a secret for nearly a decade, with Frances serving as a gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber. Hertford attempted to have this marriage set aside in 1595. He was arrested again, and Frances died in 1598.
In May 1601, he secretly married once more, to the wealthy widow Frances Prannell, also born Frances Howard, the daughter of Thomas Howard, 1st Viscount Howard of Bindon. The marriage was performed by Thomas Montfort without banns or licence, for which Monfort was suspended for three years by Archbishop John Whitgift.
Residences and landholdings
His principal seats were as follows:
Wulfhall in Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, inherited from his father. Abandoned in favour of nearby Tottenham House.
Tottenham House in Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, which he built.
Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset, the ancient seat of his ancestors Barons Beauchamp of Hatch.
Hertford House, Cannon Row in Westminster, townhouse.
Death and burial
He died in 1621 at Netley Abbey and was buried in the Seymour Chapel of Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire, where survives his elaborate monument in white alabaster with effigies of a himself and his first wife recumbent, he dressed in armour, and she in robes, both praying; at their head and feet is a kneeling effigy of each of their sons, fully dressed in armour, under four Corinthian marble columns. On the top are several figures and pyramids. Around the central inscribed tablet are impaled heraldic escutcheons showing the marriages of their respective Seymour and Grey ancestors. The Latin inscriptions are as follows: Lower under the arch, on a black marble tablet, in gold capitals, is this inscription : Underneath the armed man, on the right hand, in capitals : Underneath another figure in armour, in capitals, is this inscription :
